After an hour-long executive session, the Minden City Council voted unanimously to terminate Minden Police Officer Shawn Griffith Monday night. Griffith, and his brother, Shane are accused of posting racist material on social media.
The unanimous vote was applauded by the nearly standing-room-only crowd in the council chambers.
Earlier in the day, Shawn, along with his attorney Pamela Breedlove, appeared before the City of Minden Personnel Committee. That committee voted unanimously to pass the item off the city council, which took up the additional item at the beginning of its agenda.
“We have talked to the city attorney, and in light of the fact that City Council is very involved in this already, my recommendation as chairperson is to pass this directly to the City Council without going through this again today and again tonight,” said Personnel Committee Chairman Brent Cooley.
Both officers were asked to resign by Minden Chief of Police Steve Cropper and were subsequently placed on administrative leave with pay last week.
Later in the City Council meeting, Cropper read a prepared statement, apologizing to the citizens of Minden.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to the City of Minden, and to the people of Minden for being associated with a negative image that my department has brought to our city,” Cropper said.
“I’ve spent my 30-year law enforcement career being as fair as I could be, and trying to help anyone I could. I took a lot of pride in that. I want to reassure every citizen in Minden that I am going to do everything in my power to right this wrong. The past two weeks have been the worse two weeks of my 30-year career, and I would have never knowingly brought these issues to my department if I had any prior knowledge. I sincerely hope you can accept my apology and I appreciate ya’ll coming tonight. Thank you.”
Cropper’s statement was also applauded by those in the room.
The investigation into Shane Griffith is ongoing.